Gunmen on Friday evening attacked a family travelling along Ewu–Ayetoro Ekiti Road in the Ido/Osi council area of Ekiti State, killing a man and abducting his wife and daughter.

Multiple sources said the family members had come from their base in Lagos for a social event at Ewu Ekiti and were driving along the road when the gunmen attacked them.

A source said, “They were four persons in the Lexus car. A lady escaped; the kidnappers shot the man dead and took his wife and daughter away into the bush. The community has since been making efforts to rescue them.

“The gunmen contacted their family that very night and demanded N50m. You can see how callous they are.”

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Sunday Abutu, who confirmed the incident, said the man died on the spot.

He said, “The report we got was that the family was travelling along that route and suddenly some suspected gunmen fired gunshots at them, killed the husband and took away the wife and the man’s daughter.

“The police have mobilised to the spot and are combing the surrounding forests with other agencies like the Amotekun Corps, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, local hunters and vigilance group.

“Killing and kidnapping are two evils all of us patriotic citizens must join hands with the security agencies to defeat. Those perpetrating these don’t mean well for our country and we must all perceive them as enemies of this nation. We are not aware of the demand for any ransom from the family by the criminals.”

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Abutu said the police had arrested a suspect alleged to be one of the informants of the kidnappers terrorising the Ido Osi area of the state.

On April 10, the Elewu of Ewu Ekiti, Oba Adetutu Ajayi, was attacked by gunmen along the Ewu Ekiti–Ayetoro Ekiti Road when they rained bullets on his car and injured the traditional ruler in the process.

Also on June 10, 2021, two hotel workers in Ayetoro Ekiti were kidnapped while the hotel’s security guard, who sustained injuries from attack with machetes, is still recuperating at an undisclosed hospital in the state.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State on Saturday called on Governor Kayode Fayemi to pay attention to the invasion of the state by bandits.

The PDP Publicity Secretary in the state, Raphael Adeyanju, in a statement titled, ‘Insecurity in Ekiti: PDP accuses Fayemi of having accord with bandits,’ urged stakeholders in the state to demand action from the governor.

Adeyanju said, “It is disturbing that bandits have taken over everywhere in a state being governed by a supposed holder of PhD in War Studies. It is unexplainable; a situation where a particular road has become like a permanent operational base for kidnappers and nothing has been done by the All Progressives Congress governments in Abuja and Ado Ekiti.”

But APC in the state chided the PDP, saying, “For the PDP to have politicised this type of issue, where life was lost, showed that they are irresponsible and lazy.”